Larry Kayser wrote:

My sense is that if I can do it almost anyone can.

Talbot Andrew wrote:

Take the plunge. Get yourself a good headband magnifier and a fine bit for
your soldering iron.

Larry and Andy,

 thanks for the encouragement. I think to have a steady hand, so will
buy one of those nice moveable round neon lamps with a magnifier inside,
an ultrafine tip for my Weller soldering station, and start practicing with
dead bugs, errr chips...

But one problem remain. I have produced myself some PCBs using
the photosensitive lacquer on the laminated copper, exposing, then
etching it. But this technique, coupled with the limited resolution of
the ink jet or laser printers that can be used to produce the master,
is not precise enough for such fine and closely spaced fingers...
Are you aware of any possibility to buy online a PCB ready made
for the AD9854 ? It would suffice a layout that brings all the pins
to more manageable pads where to connect the rest of the circuit.
I checked the Analog Devices site, but they have (for an outrageous
price...) only an evaluation board for the 9854, complete with the chip.

In my last job I did a bit of chip and bond microwave circuitry.  Now that
really IS small !  Bonding 25 micron gold wire onto 0.1mm pads on bare
GaAsFET chips.

I hope you didn't do that with unaided hands... otherwise I will dub
you SuperMan..:-)

73  Alberto  I2PHD